Art of attaching rubber to metals



- To all whom it may concern UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STANLEY GREAGEN, OF RYE, NEW YORK.

ART OFATTACHING RUBB'ERTO METALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 260,020, dated June 27,1882,

Application filed December 6, 1881. (No specimens.) Q

Be it known that I, STANLEY GREACEN, of Rye, county of Westchester, inthe State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in theArt of Attaching Rubber to Metals, of which the following is a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of this invention is to provide an easy, cheap, and certainway of attaching rubber toiron, steel, or other metals to which it isapplicable.

I know that many attempts have heretofore been made to accomplish thisresult, and none of them, so far as I am aware, will accomplish thedesired end under all conditions; andI have discovered that by the useof my improvement-I can attach rubber to iron where all other processesto me known have failed.

My improved process consists in first cleaning the surface of the iron,steel, or other suitable metal. The metal' so cleaned is then coatedwith brass, copper, or other suitable metal or alloy, and this can bedone in the ease of iron or steel by electroplating or other suitablemeans. The iron or steel thus coated is then heated, preferablyin afurnace. I do not confine myself to any particular way of heatingsufficiently to drive the deposit into the surface of the metal. Theiron or steel isthen allowed to cool, when it is ready for theapplication of the rubber to be attached. If desired, the surface -ofthe article thus treated. may be coated with vulcanizable rubber cementbefore applying the rubber. The whole. should then be inclosed in amold,when practicable, and vulcanized under pressure.

In using my process I have found that a bath composed of equal parts ofsulphate of zinc and sulphate of copper dissolved in water which hasbeen acidulated with sulphuric acid will produce a suitable deposit, andin this case the iron or steel articles to be covered with rubber areplaced in this bath, where they may remain until they have received aheavy deposit. I have found that the time they may remain in the bathneed be limited only by the action of the deposit upon the surface, asif left too long the coating appears to become uneven, and the acid alsowillinjure the surface by eating the iron, and thus disfigure or alloysthe article to be coated. Otherwise I believe that the thicker thedeposit the better, so long as the iron or steel will take it up. Whenthe iron or steel article has received a good thickdeposit, which can beproduced in, say, fifteen minutes to one-half hour by the bath, thearticles are removed from thebath, and may then be allowed to dry beforebeing placed in the heating-furnace; but this is not necessary, asequally good results can be obtained by placing them, while still wetfrom the bath, directly in the furnace. I have used what is known as amuffle-furnace, of iron, heated to a bright-red heat; The articlesshould be left in said furnace long enough for the surfacecoatin gtodisappear, when they should betaken out and be allowed to cool, whenthey are ready to be coated with the rubber.

As articles of different sizes and weights will require a greater orless length of time tobecome sufficiently heated, no rule can be givenfor the time required for heating. This will have to be governed by thebulk and charactor of the articles to be heated, and can be ascertainedonly by practice. I have found that in some instances, particularlywhere the iron has been subjected to a long heat in the furnace, itssurface will be covered with a kind of fine dust or powder, which shouldbe carefully wiped off before applying the rubber. In the use of thisprocess I have applied the rubber to the iron as soon as it became coolenough for handling after coming out of the heatingfurnace, and I havefound one deposit on the surface of theiron to be sufficient forefiecting the desired end but it is obvious that, if desired, thedeposits on the'iron by the bath and the heating in the furnace may berepeated until the desired result is obtained, and this maybe necessaryin some instances, as with some kinds of iron or other metal.

I do not confine myself to any particular manner of forming the metallicdeposit upon the article to which the rubber is to be applied neither doI confine myself to any particular I do not claim the cleaning of theiron;

neither do I claim the forming of a deposit of brass, copper, or otheralloys or metals upon articles of iron or steel for the purpose ofcansing the rubber to adhere, as I am aware that these processes are nowpracticed,and the patent granted to Louis Sterne, No. 87,307, February23, 1869, describes the process of attaching rubber to iron or steel bythe use of a bath prepared to deposit the necessary precipitation ofcopper and zinc by the electro-metallurgical process.

WVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of first cleaning the surfaces of the articles of iron,steel, or other suitable metals, forming the proper deposit upon theSTANLEY GREAGEN.

Witnesses:

S. A. BAILEY, JOHN I. RATHE.

